I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for rigidly but detachably holding a vehicle door at a predetermined open position.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Motor vehicles, such as automobiles, trucks, vans and the like, typically include a body having two or more passenger doors pivotally mounted at one end to the vehicle body by hinges so that the doors pivot about a substantially vertical axis. At the other end of the door a latch mechanism is provided which lockingly engages a cylindrical striker pin rigidly secured to the vehicle body when the door is in its closed position. The latch mechanism, however, can be manually released to permit the door to be opened by a door handle either within or outside the vehicle.
Many instances arise in vehicle workshops, such as bump and coolision shops, rustproofing shops and the like in which it is desirable or even necessary to rigidly maintain the vehicle door in an open position. For example, it is desirable to rigidly maintain the door in an open position when repairing or bumping dents on the door itself. Similarly, in rustproofing automotive shops small holes must be drilled through the door, usually from the bottom of the door, in order to insert the tools for spraying the rustproofing material. Unless the door is rigidly maintained in an open position while these holes are drilled, the drill can slip and strike against unintended parts of the vehicle. This, in turn, can damage the drill or even the motor vehicle itself.
In order to rigidly maintain the door in an open position, it has been the previous practice for workmen in vehicle workshops to jam blocks of wood in between the vehicle body and the vehicle door at or near its pivotally connected end in order to hold the door in an open position. This procedure, however, is unsatisfactory in a number of different respects. First, since the vehicle doors and bodies vary between different types and different brands of vehicles, it is necessary for the workmen to select an appropriate block of wood to jam the door open by a trial and error method. This, of course, is a time consuming and therefore expensive task. Moreover, in some cases an appropriate block of wood which will adequately jam the door open cannot be found and must be specially cut by the workmen.
A still further disadvantage of jamming the vehicle door open with a wood block, even when the wood block is properly selected, is that the wood block is incapable of rigidly maintaining the vehicle door in a fixed position when an excessive force is applied to the door. This occurs since the wood is softer than the metal vehicle body and door. Thus, the force imparted to the door, such as by a hammer in bumping a dent from the door, is undesirably imparted to the wood rather than to the dent in the door.